Walking
In Unity
Pastor
Darrin Wright January 20, 2008
Introduction
In the first three chapters of
Ephesians Paul has set forth the believers position in Christ with all the
blessings, honors, and privileges that come with it. These first three chapters are doctrinal in
nature. They focus on what we
believe. In these chapters, Paul has
given us something we can sink our teeth into and build our lives upon.
In chapters four through six, Paul
shares with us what one writer called a “lifestyle agenda”. He moves from exposition to exhortation; from
what God has done to what we must be and do; from doctrine to duty; from mind
stretching theology to its down to earth, concrete implications in everyday
living; from our wealth in Christ to our walk with Christ.
Paul is issuing a call for practical
Christianity. He is calling for
application of the great truths he has established in chapters 1-3. This is a big challenge, because what we
believe influences the way we behave.
Our position in Christ has been established, we have been “blessed with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph.1:3). God has given them to us, the question is are we walking in possession of them?
God is at work in this world
building a body. He has reconciled Jews
and Gentiles to Himself in Christ. The
oneness of believers in Christ is already a spiritual reality. In these first six verses, Paul challenges us
to take possession of what God has established and walk in unity.
I.
The Call To Unity In The Church. (vs.1)
1.
“Therefore I,
the prisoner of the Lord”
2.
Most of
Paul’s letters contain a “hinge” – a point where they shift from theoretical to
practical, form principle to application – and Paul signaled this change of
direction with the word “therefore”.
3.
therefore – marks the transition from positional truth in
chapters 1-3 to practical truth in chapters 4-6.
4.
prisoner of
the Lord – By mentioning his
imprisonment he gently reminds his readers that he knows the Christian walk can
be difficult and costly and that he has paid considerable cost himself because
of his obedience to the Lord.
5.
Paul was a
prisoner for Christ, and a prisoner of Christ.
6.
Paul had the
ability to see everything in the light of how it affected Christ. He saw everything vertically before he saw it
horizontally. Everything he thought,
planned, said, and did was in relation to his Lord. He was in the fullest sense a captive of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
7.
By mentioning
his imprisonment, he is reminding us that this call to unity will not be easy,
it will take perseverance.
B.
Passionate Walk.
1.
“implore you”
2.
implore – to call to one’s side with the idea of wanting
to help or be helped; connotes intense feeling; strong desire; plea; urge;
exhort; beg.
3.
Paul is
sharing the major concerns on his heart with the Ephesians, and is pleading
with them to respond to his challenge.
4.
Paul
earnestly and urgently wanted them to walk “worthy” of their Christian calling.
1.
“to walk in a
manner worthy”
2.
walk – frequently used in the New Testament to refer
to daily conduct; it is the practical outworking of the ability of God in our
lives.
3.
worthy – to have worth or value; equal to one’s position; weight; the root
idea is of balancing the scales – what is on one side of the scale should be
equal in weight to what is on the other side; the implication is that our daily
living should correspond to our spiritual position as a child of God; there
should be no contradiction between what we are and what we do. Our practical living matches our spiritual
position.
4.
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones – “The Aposlte…is
beseeching them and exhorting them always to give equal weight in their lives
to doctrine and practice. They must not
put all the weight in doctrine and none on practice; nor
all the weight on practice and just a little if any at all on doctrine. To do so produces imbalance and
lopsidedness. The Ephesians must take
great pains to see that the scales are perfectly balanced.”
5.
Doctrine
without practice leads to dead theology; it gives correctness of thought
without the practical energy of the life of Christ.
6.
Practice
without doctrine leads to errors in theology; it gives intensity of feeling,
but it is feeling that is apt to go off in any and often wrong directions.
7.
Paul is
challenging us to reflect a proper understanding of what God has done for us.
D.
Purposeful Walk.
1.
“of the
calling with which you have been called”
2.
calling – a vocation and purpose given by God Himself
that shapes every aspect of our lives.
3.
God has
called us out of darkness and into light (1 Peter 2:9). He has called us out of death and into life
(Eph. 2:4).
4.
We are to
take this calling, this purpose and allow it to shape the way we live our
lives.
5.
Paul is
calling us to practical Christianity, specifically in regard to unity in the
church.
6.
illustration: A man who
could neither read or write was handed a tract.
He asked, what is this? When he
was told it was a tract, he said well I can’t read it; so I’ll watch your
tracks.
II. The Characteristics Of Unity
In The Church. (vs.4-6)
·
Scholars
believe this was an early Christian confessional Hymn
·
Our unity is
rooted in the Trinity
·
Paul lists
seven common denominators using the word “one”
1.
One Body
a.
The church is
a body whose head is the Lord Jesus Christ.
b.
This body is
made up of Jewish and Gentile believers.
c.
Paul does not
say one organization or institution, the church is an organism, a body.
2.
One Spirit
a.
Spirit – breath; the spirit gives the body life
b.
The Holy
Spirit brings each believer into the body of Christ.
c.
R. Kent Hughes – “The Holy Spirit creates, fills, coordinates,
orchestrates, and empowers the body of Christ.”
3.
One Hope
a.
Titus
b.
It is the
hope of eternal life in heaven and of being transformed into Christ’s sinless
likeness. We look forward to a shared
future, when Christ will come again and wipe away all our tears – where death,
mourning, weeping, and pain will fade away, and joy, peace, and unbroken
communion with God will be ours forever.
B.
Unity In The Son.(vs.5)
a.
This is Jesus
Christ, the only Savior of the world.
b.
He is the
only way to heaven.
a.
It is the
body of doctrine revealed in the Word of God.
b.
Jude 3 – “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our
common salvation, I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”
c.
When this is
denied there are divisions.
d.
There must be
substance to form a group of believers.
That substance is correct doctrine.
e.
There is one
settled body of truth deposited by Christ in His church and this is “the
faith”.
f.
There is only
one gospel.
a.
We publicly
proclaim our identification with Christ through the unique and unifying sign of
baptism, an outward sign of inner fiath.
b.
In the early
church Baptism effectively separated the believers from the world. In many instances, it was the crucial test of
a person’s faith. It was the ultimate
confession that could cost them their job, family, friends, and sometimes their
life.
c.
Baptism
announces loudly to a watching world that the believer has died with Christ,
has been buried with Him, and is now raised with Him to live in newness of
life.
C.
Unity In The Father. (vs.6)
a.
“God and
Father of all”
b.
We look to
“one Father”.
a.
“over all”
b.
Sovereign;
absolute power
c.
He is not
dependent on anything.
a.
“through all”
b.
guiding; sustaining us as He works through our lives;
moving according to His purpose.
a.
“in all”
b.
lives inside
of us
·
We are God
created, God loved, God saved, God fathered, God controlled, God sustained, God
filled, and God blessed. We are one
people under one Sovereign, omnipotent, and omnipresent God.
·
Augustine – “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things
charity.”
III. The Character Of Unity In
The Church. (vs.2)
·
Paul gives
five essentials for living a life worthy of our calling and promoting unity in
the church.
1.
“with all
humility”
2.
humility – compound word that literally means to think or
judge with lowliness; to have lowliness of mind; the opposite of pride.
3.
Humility was
not a virtue the Greeks and Romans admired.
The picture it drew in their minds was that of a slave. To them humility marked the absence of self
–respect.
4.
Humility is
the most foundational Christian virtue.
5.
Andrew Murray – “Humility is the grace that when we think we
have it, we’ve lost it.”
6.
Humility
means putting Christ first, others second, and self last.
7.
Pride and
self promoting arrogance sow disunity in the church.
1.
“and
gentleness”
2.
gentleness – that which is mild-spirited and self
controlled; used of wild animals that were tamed, they still have their
strength and spirit but their will is under the control of their master; used
of soothing medicine and a soft wind.
3.
Gentleness is
not weakness, it is strength under control, it is a person who is God
controlled.
4.
It is the
absence of asserting personal rights; not striving to get your own way.
1.
“with
patience”
2.
patience – long tempered; the ability to endure discomfort
without fighting back.
3.
John Stott – “long suffering towards aggravating people, such as God in Christ
has shown toward us.”
4.
Chrysostom – “the spirit which has the power to take revenge but never does
so.”
5.
It means we
will react in a restrained manner when people aggravate us.
6.
Patience
creates an atmosphere if grace that allows us to fail and grow, make mistakes
and learn. It clears a space for
feelings to cool down and reasonableness to regain its footing.
1.
“showing
tolerance for one another”
2.
tolerance – It is not just putting up with someone, but it
goes further to actually getting along with someone; refusing to strike back or
be bitter.
1.
“in love”
2.
love – agape; gives continuously and unconditionally;
unconquerable benevolence; invincible goodness.
3.
It is not
only of the emotions, but of the will.
4.
It is the
ability to maintain goodwill towards those who do not love us, and even towards
those whom we do not like.
IV. The Cost Of Unity In The
Church. (vs.3)
1.
“being
diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit”
2.
diligent – eager; spare no effort; a call for continuous activity; not only
haste and passion; but a full effort of the whole man involving his will,
sentiment, reason, physical strength, and total attitude; it excludes
passivity.
3.
preserve – Paul doesn’t say we are to produce unity; he
says we are to maintain and preserve a unity that has already been produced by
the Holy Spirit.
4.
unity of
the Spirit – it is not an
external, organizational unity; it is a unity of the heart and it goes beyond
our differences, and involves our relationships and attitudes with others.
5.
Warren Wiersbe – “The spiritual unity of a home, a Sunday School
Class, or a church is the responsibility of each person involved, and the job
never ends.”
6.
David Jeremiah – “Unity doesn’t mean uniformity. It doesn’t mean we have to all be
cookie-cutter Christians. Nor does it
mean unanimity – we don’t have to agree on everything. Nor is unity an ecumenical movement where we
set aside our core beliefs to find the lowest common denominator of
agreement. Unity is embracing Jesus
Christ as Lord of the church, and bowing before Him in all things.”
1.
“in the bond
of peace”
2.
peace – right relationships with one another.
3.
Christ has
established peace (Eph.
4.
The “bond of
peace” is the spiritual belt that surrounds and bind’s
God’s holy people together.
5.
Charles Swindoll – “In a divisive, warring, wounding world, the
most powerful testimony the church can give is genuine unity, prompted by true
love and shown in the example of peace.
This reflects the reality of God like nothing else on earth.”
6.
Saint Francis Of Assissi – Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, where
there is hate my I bring love, where offence may I bring pardon, may I bring
union in place of discord.
Conclusion
Illustration
of a symphony